“A combination of manifesto and memorial, providing both a tribute to those who’ve jumped and a starting point for those who want to prevent more suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge.”
“A wonderful addition to the literature of suicide. . . . The statistics that Bateson provides in The Final Leap are sobering. So is the vast body of literature about suicide, from Flaubert and Tolstoy to Plath, London, Hemingway, Hoffman, Ginsberg, and beyond.”
“Grim, yes, but also fascinating.”
“Here is the full story of why a famed structure draws folks set on death, nicely timed for the Golden Gate’s 75th anniversary.”
“The great strength of Leap is in illustrating the hundreds of lives touched by each bridge suicide: the witnesses who watch people plunge to their deaths; the Golden Gate Station Coast Guard officers who rescue the bodies — and who suffer an outsize rate of attrition because of the trauma; the coroners who perform autopsies. Bateson is a gifted writer, and he treats his subject matter in a way that manages to be uncommonly tender without ever veering into mawkishness or melodrama. But with a debate revolving around how best to address the issue, the book is as much about activism as it is about documentation: Bateson is a vociferous proponent of a suicide barrier on the bridge, and hopes that The Final Leap — which spends a great deal of time laying out, and efficiently knocking down, the arguments that have long been floated against the barrier — will raise momentum.”
"Grim, yes, but also fascinating."
“Extremely well done. It’s the single most important contribution to the debate surrounding suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge to date.” -Thomas Joiner, author of Lonely at the Top and Why People Die by Suicide
“John Bateson takes us on a gripping journey through the lives of everyone who has been affected. He boldly counters myths with facts, eloquently speaks of the unspeakable, and helps us all to care about those who, in an instant, stopped caring about themselves. This book stirs the soul to fight for the day when the protective net is finally cast under the Golden Gate Bridge, when it will become a national monument to both beauty and compassion.”—John Draper, Director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
